ROCKFORD - Laytwan Porter looked like former Auburn great Fred Van Vleet in the first half, with seven often spectacular assists, every one for a layup.

In the second half, all the Knights got in on the assist parade, led by Phil Trammell's five in the last two quarters. The Knights worked equally as cohesively on defense, forcing 27 turnovers. As a result, Auburn finally looked like the team coach Bryan Ott envisioned and destroyed Boylan 78-48 Friday to win its third outright NIC-10 title in four years.

"Coach has been telling us all week that we're a good team when we play together, not when we play 1-on-1 basketball," Trammell said. "We came out and played together as one unit."

Ott had been frustrated early this year when Auburn (24-5, 14-2 NIC-10) only had a half-dozen assists in a 13-point loss at Boylan.

But this time, the Knights played together from the start, taking their cue from Porter.

"Laytwan is not just a scorer; he's a playmaker," Trammell said. "We ride with him every game."

And this game Porter was more of a facilitator than a scorer, a main reason why five Knights were bunched between 10 and 15 points.

"I just wanted to get my team involved," Porter said. "This is my family and I wanted to lead them."

"And we found him, too," Antoine Porter said. "When he finds us, we give it back to him."

Auburn had as many steals as assists, flustering a Boylan team that had won 22 NIC-10 titles in 27 years before Auburn emerged as the new conference kingpin. Brock Stull (23 points, including all eight in a 39-8 Auburn run) was the only consistent weapon for Boylan (19-7, 13-3).

"We got embarrassed. It's gut-check time," said Boylan coach Mike Winters, whose Titans could meet Auburn in the Boylan Regional. "We've got a bunch of guys that need to play a lot better. It absolutely comes down to protecting the ball. And we can't have Brock play the 1, the 2 and the 3. Somebody else has to step up."

Auburn won in front of an overflow crowd in a game that had been sold out for 3 1/2 days. Former Oregon coach Ernie Kent, in town for the Rockford Public Schools' Hall of Fame banquet today, compared it to his old East-West matchups.

"Except we had a fight in the corner of the stands at one of our games and a guy in a black leather coat blocked one of my shots from the deep corner," Kent said.

If this was a fight, Auburn won by a third-quarter knockout.

The Knights led only 34-32 before going on a 22-0 run. Stull ended that run with a 35-footer at the third-quarter buzzer, but Auburn started again, outscoring Boylan 39-8 in one stretch. The Knights made all 15 of their shots inside the 3-point arc during that run, mostly because they moved the ball so well. And because they got so many steals with all the defenders working in unison.

Page 2 of 2 - "That's the key, both of those two things," coach Ott said. "We talked all week about the importance of playing together."

Pittman led Auburn with 15 points, while Nylek Cobb added 14, Porter and Malik Minor 12 each and Zavious Hoover 10. Cobb, ineligible until recently, gives the Knights one more athletic weapon.

"He brings a lot off the bench; scoring, rebounding, defensive intensity," Trammell said. "We needed him all season. I'm just glad we have him now when we're making this run."